Jane's Stuff

Jane enjoys drawing and painting. Join her. Doodling, drawing, ART - all of it is great for brain health! Check out Jane's Youtube channel below. And if you see a picture on my blog you would like to purchase send Jane an email (or check out Jane's store).

Seriously, I've been working! I haven't quite got the pen situation straightened out (I think I really need to get good using the bottle of ink and pen nib but I'll start that next week), but I have been applying myself.

How?

Well, first, I've been studying lots of children's picture books and taking notes on what I like and don't like. Above is my second stack from the library in Pierre. The book on top above is illustrated by Tedd Arnold (click on the picture if you want to go to his website). The author is Jill Sardegna but illustrators get the publicity here.....(but I'll give her a link too -- gotta respect the authors).

I have a new favorite: James Marshall. He was an author/illustrator. He did the George and Martha books. They are so simple but I LOVE THEM!

Here's a quick sketch of George and Martha. They are friends and they are hippos. The format of the books are absolutely perfect.

If you look above the hippos in the picture on the left you'll see some writing.

Besides studying and taking notes of Children's picture books I've been practicing calligraphy. I am reading a book that is filled with interviews of illustrators. One of them mentions the importance of having good lettering skills. So, I'm trying. Here's a few more of my efforts:

The one above has some quick sketches of wolves (it seems all my sketches are quick ones). These wolves are copied from Joan Aiken's book The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. This is an incredible book. It's giving me all sorts of ideas for a new book. By the way, the illustrator of that book is Pat Marriott.

So, here's my plan of attack starting next week (my six kids have been home since before Christmas -- if I get everything out - -meaning all my drawing and painting stuff -- they for sure want to join in. They do get to paint but it is hard for me to really work when they are around. They go back to school Monday): I am going to begin on my portfolio pieces and also start working on a couple book ideas with pictures and text. We'll see what happens. The members of the writing group I'm part of, Created to Create Writers Group, are so patient with me. One member has finished her novel while I bring something different every single time. Twice I brought chapters from my book Giant Sophie (which is still being worked on). Another time I brought a piece I wrote long ago. Then other times I've brought poetry and stuff for kids' magazines. Oh well....they love me (I think).

We have a bit of chaos happening in our family situation today and I let myself get a bit bummed.

BUT, you know what, maybe coloring would do the trick.

Later......

OH....I'm reading a book with my son Hawk called The Silver Spoon of Solomon Snow by Kaye Umansky. It is great. And I've drawn some pictures from the book. I bought the book for ten cents at a library in Rock Island, Il. I recommend it highly. I'm only in the first few chapters but the characters have already grabbed me.

I might post again so I can show some of the stuff I've been working on. I was gone from home Tuesday through Saturday last week for Thanksgiving so I didn't have much time to post. BUT I kept on sketching!

After visiting my grandmother at the nursing home my son Ryan (age 17) was looking in a notebook I have in my purse. It is one I often write sermon notes in, but lately there's been more pictures than notes. He first said, "Mom..." He was surprised at the pictures.

But then he said, "Mom, you say you don't have a style but a lot of these pictures look like the Far Side comics."

Maybe I ought to study Gary Larson's work (the Far Side creator).

Here's a sample of Larson's humor. He is brilliant. I miss his comics in the paper.

If you're interested in seeing more from Larson I found a website that talks about him and his work. Just click here.

So, it is Monday and I will once again get into the rhythm of this journey. I'm excited -- have no idea where I am going but I am enjoying the ride!

I've been hitting my head within. This journey of becoming an illustrator -- whether I become a working one or not -- is going to take time. I want it to happen now. I want to find my style now. But it takes time. I've been writing for a long time. I don't know when it happened, but somewhere along the way my voice came out. The same will happen with my drawing. How to I stop copying someone else's style? How do I let another illustrator inspire me but not become a copycat? Not sure of the answer.

My main reason for doing this blog is to keep me accountable. I am going to work on my illustration Monday through Friday until my unique style shines through.

How will I know?

I just will. It will be a way in which I love to draw and paint in. It will be fun for me. It will be expressive.

I'm not there yet.

I watched some videos today that were really good. Two were of an artist by the name of Dario Jabenko. She has a handful of Youtube videos where she shares how she became a successful illustrator and gives a lot of tips.

What do you know -- the first tip is to get your own style. It took her a year to find her style after she graduated from illustration school. If you are interested check out the links I shared about her.

Back to my Sonheim book. I decided to attempt the assignment again which frustrated me yesterday, but I'd do it a bit differently. Today I also watched a bit of a David Catrow video. He talked about how many artists do self-portraits. So, I thought I am going to try that. Instead of drawing a dog over and over quickly I'll do myself. Here are some of the results:

This isn't good. I look like an elf and nothing like myself -- well a bit maybe. But it wasn't fun to draw and it wasn't anything like I want to draw.

But Carla mentions in the book if you continue you might find your style.

But I am getting frustrated with drawing myself. But I haven't quit yet.

This is even worse. Yuck.I definitely don't like drawing myself, and I definitely don't like this kind of work.

I do not have big eyes but i love drawing big eyes. So, as you see from portraits I am subconsciously giving myself big eyes....

Instead of finding anything great about my drawing I am getting more frustrated with this project I began and I am going to give up soon. This is not fun at all.The drawings are getting worse.Yes, this is pathetic. I look like a cookie....that makes me laugh.

I finally gave up. This is fruitless and pointless.

So after this one, I have decided I am not going to draw my self portrait. Instead I'll go to the assignment the book gives me that I felt like would be cheating. By the way I like this one the best even though I could have drawn this in first grade!

Today's assignment is to draw some watercolor swishes on a piece of watercolor paper. I didnt' want to do this assignment because this is how I approach my acrylic and glue canvas paintings. I don't do it with paint. I do it with glue and then I paint what i see in the glue. But I wanted some success here so I decided to go ahead and do this assignment. But I changed it. The book says to find an imaginary animal. Today, from Daria's video she said to draw what you like to draw. I like to draw people from my imagination. So, when I began looking for an animal (which I thought I had at first) I found a lady.

This is who I found -- The Rocking Lady. After the above painting dried I used a sharpie and found her legs. At first I thought they were some kind of chicken legs, but then I found her rocker and her face. I had to go with this lady. She is sure not perfect - -she is missing an arm and her left arm is very awkward, but I think she is pretty darn cool.

So, overall the illustration was successful. I am really liking watercolor and ink (or sharpie). I am really liking Quentin Blake's illustration -- he is influencing me. Somehow he can convey emotion in apparently simple pictures. That is talent.

So, I am going to take Daria's advice (I am also going to add her to my artists I love page). I am going to draw and paint what I love to draw and paint (But still do the lessons Carla's book gives me).

I didn't do lessons 4 and 5 in Carla Sonheim'sbook today. I will get back to them, but they involved going to a zoo. First, the closest zoo is four hours away from home. And second, it is really damp and cold outside. My RA is really affected by damp weather so it felt better to stay indoors today. I was going to sit outside and draw my horses and chickens which would have worked but again, there was and is the dampness.

So, I went onto lesson 6.

It was a disaster for me. It frustrated me. I couldn't get it right. I was bummed big time. So I gave up that lesson and decided to do my own.

Last week I watched a video of Quentin Blake (I'll put this video at the bottom of this post for anyone interested) illustrating a picture from one of his books. He used a real fountain pen and painted right over the ink with watercolors. I was fascinated. I didn't know they wouldn't smear....so I bought a real pen at Wal-mart a couple of days ago and decided to get it out and see how I did with it.

I also skipped ahead to Carla's scribble lesson a did a bit of that. I've realized that this book is set up that you can skip ahead and go back. You don't have to do these lessons in order.

I bought a graph paper notebook yesterday to see what it would be like to draw on it. It is kind of cool, but this kind of ink soaks through notebook paper. I put a piece of tracing paper to keep it from bleeding onto the next page.

If you know the original art from Carroll's Alice books you might recognize Alice's legs and the Jabberwocky's mouth.

Still copying Alice artwork. I decided to paint a bit on this page just to see how it worked with the ink. Well, it worked great! It doesn't smear a bit....no wonder people use it. So, I am thinking I am going to explore this further. I like how it looks -- or the potential it has. I still don't have my style but I will keep on working.

This is the scribble exercise in Carla's book.

This one didn't copy well. Couldn't find the camera so I scanned this. It is my son Hawken lying on the floor.

Scribbling is a good exercise. Getting to a place where you draw with a loose and fluid hand is so important. Plus, it is easier on the hand. I felt it with my aching joints today.

This is my husband's recliner. It took didn't copy well, but again, scribbling a picture is very freeing and also educational.

So, what am I learning on this journey?

I am learning things I prefer - -so far I love paint and ink.

I need to have fluid movements and a loose hand.

I should NEVER criticize the work while working.

If I am not enjoying what I am drawing or the technique -- if it is no fun whatsoever -- then I don't do it.

AND, I have found that watching other artists work really helps. So, as I stated above, I am going to cut and paste the Quentin Blake video (actually, this is a different one, but there are lots of illustration videos on YouTube...Take time to watch some). I will also cut and paste a video that features David Catrow drawing one of his favorite characters. Hope you enjoy them. Thanks for being part of my journey.

OK, I should have no problem with this one, at least for the subject. I have four cats and two dogs in the house!

All I can find are sleeping animals! Carla says even if they are sleeping, we still have to do each charcoal drawing quickly, like no more than a minute. This is Huckleberry the cat and Zeko the dog (both rescued animals).

These aren't the exact material lesson 3 asked for but they are close enough. I am not comfortable using charcoal at all! I love the idea of it, but actually using it rarely happens -- probably would have been better to use a charcoal pencil but didn't have one lying around.

OK. This is pathetic. My sleeping animals are just not something I capture movement wise. The cat in the corner is better than the dog, but if my dog Zeko was vain he'd say I made so fat! So, I'm going to look for another subject to test my skills on.

Here's my kitten Killer. I had to wake her up too and then she just posed! She moved her head a bit because a fly was bugging her, but she seemed to know I was drawing her and wanted to "help" me out -- though this assignment does better with moving animals! So, I'll try (of course now she is trying to get up on my keyboard).

Here they are. I don't know if I was successful or not.

Here's my favorite (though the face on the right is not good though I learned something about a cat's mouth).

What did I learn from this assignment?

1.That animals don't always cooperate.

2. That it is good to use materials I don't normally use and that I'm not comfortable with.

3. That drawing moving animals in my house should happen at night or early morning when they all are running around!Today' assignment was short (and Killer is now sitting on my lap along with this laptop). I feel a bit cheated, but maybe I'll take time to do a bit more. Moving the pencil or whatever you're drawing with quickly without self-criticism is key to drawing well I think.....

Today, Carla's second lesson asked me to do some blind contour drawings. I chose to do a few elephants, one of my two favorite animals. The other one is the giraffe (but I also love cats and horses and chickens and dogs....well, all sorts).

So here I am getting ready. I have the iPad set with lots of elephant images. My coffee cup is full. I have my paper, my pen (my husband did buy me a fine-point sharpie yesterday but it is still in his car), and the card stock.

Okay, kind of silly but this doesn't happen often. I have matching socks on!

Hawk is planning on helping me.

Here's one of my contour drawings. I really like this one -- even though I couldn't look at the page while drawing these elephants it has a nice feel to it.

Here's contour number two. The one on the left you can tell is an elephant but just. And the thing on the right is part of an elephant -- I can make out his ear.

Here is the result. I think I might still do some more on it but i like it. I ended up using my finger to paint most of the time. I also used a coffee filter to dab the paint. And of course the paper dried bumpy and wavy. But that is okay. I think this has a lot of emotion. If I do more with it I may post the finished project. We'll see.

What am I learning on my illustrator's journey? That a free hand is necessary for emotion-packed pictures. That I have to enjoy it for it to work out. That I can learn from the mistakes as much or more than I do from the successes.